Thanks to your parents, student

loans, or the Georgia lottery, college will provide you with a well-rounded

education and a degree. The rest of it is up to you.

There are some things all you

newbies must learn for yourselves. Like how to convince your parents to

send more money after they see your credit card bill, or how many cycles

in the dryer it takes for your clothes to be remotely dry.

And there are some things everyone

knows before going off to college, like you'd better memorize the number

of the nearest pizza place. However, I'd like to share some of the more

important, and costly, lessons I've learned this past year with all you

upcoming freshmen.

Confucius said it best: "Wheresoever

you go, go with all your heart." Don't poison your own college experience

with bitterness and regret because you're not at your dream school.

Whether you didn't get in or

you couldn't afford it, you are going where you are going for a reason.

Maybe you'll save up money or take out loans and transfer, maybe you'll

fall in love with your last resort college choice and vow to be buried

under the stadium. Either way, do and give your best wherever you're going.

Don't hold back because you think your acceptance letters to more prestigious

schools make you better than your classmates.

Except for a post-spring break

bout with "senioritis," I worked assiduously throughout high

school and had the grades and test scores to prove it. When I was forced

to attend my dead-last college choice because my dream school was too

expensive, I didn't think I needed to go to class. And my fall semester

GPA showed it!

Go to class, however exhausted

you may be. Don't lower your work ethic or standards because you're not

at that prestigious private school; public universities may surprise you!

Take advantage of all your

college has to offer, even if it's not your high school boyfriend or girlfriend.

I knew someone this year who went home every single weekend to be with

her boyfriend and consequently didn't experience one night of the college

weekend scene (which begins on Thursday night, by the way) and met zero

new friends.

Don't cheat yourself out of

some of the greatest years of your life because you're not with the one

you love. Live college up every way you can!

If you break up in the future,

you will have gained poignant memories, priceless experiences, and lifelong

friends to help you through the breakup. If you do end up together, you'll

be a more complete, well-rounded individual and hence able to contribute

more to the relationship. College is about growing and changing; you'll

never do that if you're too scared you'll lose that high school romance.

Know when to let go of high

school friends, and when to cling tightly. Some of your best friends will

become your enemies in college or will change so drastically that you

have little if anything to talk about. Letting go of those friends is

painfully hard, but sometimes the price of finding ourselves is outgrowing

what we love the most.

On the other hand, one or two

of your best high school friends will remain in your life. I can't count

how many times I called my best friends from high school, regardless of

how far away they were. Ranging from "No one here understands me

like you do" to "You'll love my friends here, I can't wait for

you to visit," I promise you those conversations with old friends

will be a way of going home again. At college you will meet people with

whom you will attend tailgating parties when you're 45. But don't let

go of the people who clutched you as you stood on that field after graduation.

Stay true to yourself. College

is the time in your life when you are free to change as radically as you

desire. Maybe you left home a loyal Gore fan and return a card-carrying

college Republican. Maybe you come home toting Marx and announcing your

plans to live in a commune after graduation. Your politics and philosophies

may change, but don't let college's temptingly free atmosphere take away

or destroy your real values. Cling to your family, your friends, your

faith. College is about finding yourself, but don't lose yourself in the

process.

Carpe diem! (And, since it's

college, carpe noctem!) You will have 10 times more fun in college than

you did around "the PTC" (you can only go to Starbucks and Tinseltown

so many times), but college is also more than just partying. When else

in your life can you wake up one day and pick up Swahili, or acting, or

creative writing, or marine biology? So many opportunities lie in front

of you: take them!

Join a club that involves something

you've always felt passionate about. Try writing for the campus newspaper.

Attend a protest, or a lecture. Go inside the library at least once! Go

to a poetry reading, or a debate. Visit your professors during their office

hours. Tailgate. Take a class you've always been interested in, regardless

of how unrelated to your major it may be. Study abroad. Go to a frat party,

whether you drink or not. Randomly introduce yourself to people you encounter.

Go to class in your PJs. Go to class without wearing makeup. Go to class,

period!

Whether you're a Tiger or a

Seminole, a Yellow Jacket or a Bulldog, suck all the marrow out of your

college experience. If there's anything I've learned at my once dead-last

college choice that I now love intensely, it's that you only experience

college once. May it be the best five or six years of your life!

Jennifer Gaynor

University of Georgia